Burning Issues: Is Climate Change A U.S. Security Threat?

April 11, 2016

Burning Issues Video

[fve]https://youtu.be/H_vVwcEw8gQ[/fve]

Jason Kowalski, U.S. policy director for 350.org, the global, grassroots organization battling climate change, explains in this Burning Issues video how climate change has become a national security issue.

As the Republican presidential candidates are mocking President Obama for considering climate change a serious security issue, “What experts say is that climate change is a contributing factor to conflict all over the world,” according to Kowalski.

The Obama administration’s action on climate change has been transformative in moving other global powers away from dependence on fossil fuels, Kowalski says. That progress will certainly be set back if a climate-change denier succeeds Obama in the White House, he says, but would also be negatively affected by a president who is simply unwilling to take such steps as blocking fracking to keep the fuel extracted by that process from worsening global warming.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership threatens to undermine the real progress the United States and the world is poised to make on addressing climate change, says Ilana Solomon of the Sierra Club in this Burning Issues video.

A dramatic shift in foreign aid spending to the Defense Department has created significant risks for U.S. diplomacy and peacemaking, says Colby Goodman of the Center for International Policy in this Burning Issues video.